LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR

At the time of this picture, we were exactly five hours away from the Summer Solstice, which marks the beginning of Summer. Today is also the longest day of the year. Fort Smith will have 14 hours and 33 minutes of sun and Fayetteville will have 14 hours and 37 minutes. If you happened to live in Anchorage, Alaska you'd be looking at 19 hours and 22 minutes of sunlight and if you happened to be above 66 1/2 degrees N latitude, or otherwise said, north of the arctic circle, the sun wouldn't set. The picture below is what that would look like.

So, if today is the one with most sunshine, you may wonder why it isn't also the hottest day of the year. The reason is because there's a lag in the response of the Earth, temperature-wise. It takes awhile for the land to heat up and even longer for the oceans. Typically by August the Earth's temperature is as warm as it will get in the Northern hemisphere, even though the amount of sunlight received is comparable to that of April.

Posted by Ted Zarras at 6:50 AM